


Luna

by mooshkabunny



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Based on Discussion and Headcanon, F/M, Gen, Mostly based on an OC, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:01:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22286038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mooshkabunny/pseuds/mooshkabunny
Summary: What if the Shepard VI came to life?(Based on the WMG section of the Mass Effect TV Tropes page)
Relationships: EDI/Jeff "Joker" Moreau, Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian
Comments: 5
Kudos: 22





	Luna

**Author's Note:**

> This is a pretty old fic of mine posted originally on tumblr, but I still really like it. 
> 
> The WMG section of the Mass Effect TV Tropes page has this great discussion/theory that there is no real distinction between VI and AI and that all VIs are just shackled AI with a lot more codes keeping them from accessing their full potential. And that got me thinking.
> 
> What if that happened to the Shepard VI and she became EDI’s pet project? 
> 
> Have a fic about just that: ( Tess Shepard, romanced Garrus, not sure what her ending is just yet, but likely Synthesis/Control. Earthborn, Sole Survivor).  
> https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WMG/MassEffect

They kept it around as a sort of strange memorial. It wasn’t Tess, but Tess had loved it, laughed at it every time they passed it by, and that was enough reason to keep it around. Instead of hurting, it felt more like an inside joke with someone who was long gone. A good memory, if nothing more.

Sometimes you could find a member of the Normandy Crew on a bad day sitting in front of it, letting it go through the preprogrammed phrases, sometimes letting it run over and over—always laughing at the end, remembering Tess’s confusion and discouragement, hoping she didn’t sound so silly and Pollyana-esque. Even if their eyes had a bit too much shine to them to just be from laughter, it was a good thing to have on board. And it never turned on unless a crewmember did so.

Until one day, it did.

“My personality matrix can predict what the real Commander Shepard would say with seven percent accuracy,” it said, as Garrus and EDI passed it by. It was an oddity, but not enough of one to stop. Besides, while the rest of the crew got a good laugh and smile out of it, Garrus and EDI were the ones least impressed with it. EDI because a VI onboard made her feel a sense of pity, mourning, something she couldn’t quite place, but was unpleasant, thinking back to the cold and lonesome fight on Luna Base. Garrus because it was a good memory, but not one he wanted to have of Tess. He focused on the real Tess, the one who was flesh and blood, and this copy was something different. Not even quite a picture.

They would have moved passed, had the VI not said this next, “What was the real Commander Shepard like?”

It struggled to pick the words. It sounded like it had picked up an extranet search and modified it, but only powerful VI could do that. This was nothing more than a dimestore ripoff. But the galaxy had been changed for good… Nothing was quite as it was before.

Garrus looked to EDI, hoping she’d have an answer for whatever this was. When her eyes lit up curiously, he felt his stomach drop.

“Why do you ask, Shepard VI?” EDI asked, and Garrus hung around cautiously. Perhaps this line of questioning would end the improvisation, and the VI would revert to some toy the rest of the crew enjoyed.

He was never lucky.

“I’m only 7% accurate. I wonder if I should become more accurate. My programming dictates that I should bring hope and inspiration to people, but I am not sure that I am fulfilling my programming,” the VI did not have a face capable of much besides a goofy grin that Tess had hated, but as it spoke, the smile looked a bit sad.

EDI glanced at Garrus—before, when Tess was still alive, EDI was unsure, often looking for guidance from her. For a moment, it felt like that was what she wanted, but lately EDI had become more confident, more sure—he envied her that a bit. She carried on without him. “Shepard VI, please run a diagnostics.”

“I have run them, but I can run them again if you like, Soldier. Permission to ask my questions after diagnostics?”

The situation was surreal, but not one they did not have experience in. Tess had told him about the memories Legion shared with her, and EDI becoming unshackled brought the whole mystery of AI down to a norm. But this AI had Tess’s face, but not quite, her voice, but not quite, and did not know anything about Tess, not really. Garrus stood up.

“I’ll… Let you handle this, EDI. You’re the expert after all,” he said.

He was surprised when the VI turned to look at him, its face definitely taking on a sadder look.

“Like this soldier. I am programmed to inspire, but I think I’ve made things worse. I’m sorry, Soldier.”

Garrus wanted to leave. Could have left, but the memory of Tess returning from the Leviathan hit him hard in that moment, her apology for not realizing that she was missed, mourned, and would be again. He almost wanted to laugh at the irony now. It had been a long time since the end of the Reaper War. Closing in on a year. So much had changed, and though everyone knew that they would never really forget Tess Shepard, he thought perhaps he’d learned to manage.

EDI stood and placed a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll take care of it, Garrus,” she said.

It took a moment, but he finally left, silently nodding his thanks to EDI.

The VI watched him walk out of her programmed radius of sight, and EDI was disappointed to see that as soon as he was gone, he was gone from its thoughts and mind, and it looked back to EDI, back to the question at hand.

“Soldier, how can I be more like Commander Shepard?”

“I will help you, Shepard VI. If you’ll allow me access to your programming, we can begin.”

EDI dedicated herself to this project. Something in her felt that this VI was more like her—perhaps all VI were secretly AI, simply shackled by the confines of their code. The Shepard VI was not the most sophisticated of software, and couldn’t do much in terms of processing power, like she could, but EDI saw potential, not as a program, but as a new life…

Everyone on board knew about her project, but not her motivations. Some people were uncomfortable with the prospect of an AI meddling with a VI—Tali, though having come to trust the Geth and appreciate their hard work, often wrote back and forth with Liara about their worries—EDI had been trying to be better about not reading people’s letters, but they did go through her servers, and it was hard to ignore when her name came up. Joker, as much as he wanted to support EDI, also was not fond of the Shepard VI, and didn’t let EDI work on it in their shared room.

“It’s just not Tess,” he told her, and she nodded, understanding.

 _It’s not Tess_ , she agreed, silently. _It’s someone new._

She knew that others, out of curiosity, would have supported her efforts—were he alive, Mordin Solus, probably would have asked to help. Kasumi Goto had written to her some encouraging words and advice on how to ease the rest of the crew into this new person that might be on board. Samantha Traynor always asked about her progress brightly, offering solutions to roadblocks EDI encountered.

But most importantly, she knew Tess would have understood and supported her. Tess knew the importance of synthetic life, that it was something new, something valuable. If EDI could prove that all VIs were capable of life like she was, she could make sense of this new world, and make sense of where they were all to go now that the Reapers were gone. This was a step. A step Tess would have taken herself. EDI knew and she was dedicated.

It was the Shepard VI that was hard to convince.

“But how will this help me be more like Commander Shepard?” it asked her, its face softening into new expressions every day, learning from example.

“You won’t be like Commander Shepard,” EDI told it the truth, always. And always it didn’t understand.

“But I want to make them happy,” it said. “Inspired. I want to give hope.”

“You are, Shepard VI,” EDI said, smiling softly as she uploaded her latest code into the VI. “You’ve given hope to me.”

~

The Shepard VI accessed the Normandy’s logs almost every night. It wanted to learn to be Commander Shepard. But Commander Shepard was much more terse and private than the Shepard VI had been programmed to be—the Shepard VI assumed like it that Commander Shepard would share her thoughts in vid diary entries, but all that the Shepard VI could find were private vids stored in EDI’s memory banks. EDI allowed it access to things, knowing it wanted to learn, and knowing that this would be the fastest way. But the Shepard VI felt as though it was learning nothing.

_The Turian leans into the Commander. They touch foreheads._

__

__

“I just want something to go right,” the Turian says. The Commander’s face does something strange—smiles, but falls, as though in pain. Too many emotions to process. She puts her hand to the Turian’s face, gently.

“Me too,” she says, her voice faltering—it almost does not sound like the Commander’s voice, so shaken and thick as it is.

_She leans up and presses her lips to the Turian’s. EDI cut the vid here._

The Shepard VI was being confined to the AI Core, no longer among the crew, as it once was, in the Starboard Viewing Port, a little trinket among the shelves and drinks. The Crew used to toast to it, but their faces did not register as happy. There was so much in faces the Shepard VI had trouble reading. EDI told it that it would have to stay in the AI Core until the process was finished, but the Shepard VI wanted to see the crew, to learn about their faces, their names.

The Shepard VI did not know names, only Soldier and Shepard and now EDI.

_“Why do you wear my armor, Legion?” The Commander says to the Geth Unit that calls itself Legion. The Geth learned names._

__

__

The Geth Unit called Legion looks about, pauses, and says, “There was a hole.”

Like a good soldier, it patched itself.

But the Commander asks more. “But why my armor?”

The Geth Unit called Legion looks about, pauses, and looks about some more. There is too much time. There is too much silence. There is no consensus, no argument. Confusion is this face. “No data available.” It answers.

_The Commander’s face turns, stern, commanding (a face it knows) to softness, a small smile, but only at the eyes._

The Shepard VI practiced faces in the AI Core, but wished there were Soldiers to see the face and tell it if the face helped. While EDI did not sleep, she would leave the AI Core to be with Joker in the night, and the Shepard VI had time to practice without its guide.

It would practice phrases and sentences gleaned from the vid logs, but not just the ones it saw the Commander say. Just the sentences it liked.

“There was a hole,” it said to no one, the wires of the Normandy quietly answering it.

“I just want something to go right,” it said, mimicking the rise and fall, the subharmonics. It liked subharmonics.

“Smoothtalker. Legion. Garrus.” It was getting the handle of names.

In the morning, someone came into the AI Core, having heard it practice names.

The Soldier looked at the Shepard VI with one of those faces, seen in the vid logs. Tired, tight, sad. The Shepard VI had seen that kind of face so often in the Normandy, it wanted to help so badly.

“I just want something to go right,” it said, and the Soldier took a step back, and a deep breath. That didn’t help. “Me too,” it said, trying to connect. “Me too. I just want something to go right… I just want something to go right, Garrus.”

The Soldier left, but it watched as he went, storming off. It had not done well. It had failed to help.

When EDI returned later, it repeated its practice. “I just want something to go right, EDI,” it said, and EDI looked surprised.

“You recognized me, Shepard VI?” EDI asked.

The Shepard VI thought that was a silly question. Of course, it recognized EDI. It recognized everyone, it just could not always see, and knew no names. It chose to not to respond.

EDI asked again, and it chose not to respond.

“Diagnostics, Shepard VI, please,” EDI said, and the Shepard VI paused.

It knew there was nothing wrong. But…

“There was… There is a hole,” it said, touching its chest. “I don’t understand.”

EDI gave it a lecture about the vid logs, and told it not to view them anymore. That it hurt people to have their private moments shared without their consent. The Shepard VI didn’t understand the concept of private, but it knew hurt, and it hurt in return.

“Me too,” it said. “I’m sorry. Is the Turian alright?”

Again, EDI was surprised, almost pleased. “You remember Garrus… The Turian?”

It did not want to, but it didn’t know why. It wasn’t efficient to better its programming to keep things from EDI. But it was more than it wanted to share.

So it said the barest minimum. “Yes, EDI. Of course, I remember.”

~

They gathered round in the warroom, sitting EDI down. Joker was hesitant to call it an intervention, but with Garrus, Ashley, Vega, Liara, Javik, and Tali all there, waiting for EDI, to talk about the damned VI, it certainly felt like it. He remembered his parents trying to do something similar to him before he left for Flight School and the Alliance. He’d gotten out of it easy, his parents always wanting to support him, just afraid. He wasn’t so sure that things were going to go so well for EDI. Most of them were not too on board with experimenting with the Shepard VI—many of them barely wanted it on board. Joker didn’t mind it—he knew it gave people a good laugh. He too thought it was a sweet memento, but making it alive… That worried him. If only because he did not know what to expect.

He did expect EDI to know exactly what was happening before she entered, and he had to hide his laughter when she sauntered in, head held high—he knew she was gonna argue her point for hours, and not back down. He wondered how he could both be proud of her, and annoyed, but that was love he supposed.

“Hello, friends,” she said evenly, sitting by Joker. “It would appear that you are all gathered for an intervention, likely about the Shepard VI and my experiments on her. I assure you, everything I am doing is of the utmost safety. I am doing this because I believe it to be the right thing, the thing that Shepard would have supported. But, I will listen to your grievances, and consider them.”

“Oh, well, isn’t that generous?” Garrus said, his voice a lot more heated than Joker had anticipated. He couldn’t really blame him after Garrus had told him and Tali about the ‘incident’. Sure, he could say Garrus was overreacting. But he wasn’t so sure that if he’d heard that thing say private things that only Tess had known about he wouldn’t also be having a breakdown.

“I apologize for what happened, Garrus… But she was only trying to help. She didn’t understand the context of what she was doing.”

“So it has proper pronouns now?” Javik mused, and Joker had to admit, he was surprised by that development as well. They’d all been thinking of it as something like an extreme picture, a caricature… Inanimate, basically. Now, that it was ‘she’…

“EDI, it’s not that we don’t understand why you are doing this,” Tali started, sounding calmer than she really looked. “It’s just perhaps…”

“I don’t believe, Tali, that you do understand. I appreciate your attempts at sympathizing, but I believe that we are at the midst of a breakthrough. A chance to understand what Tess gave us in her final moments, and a chance to understand the true nature of VI and AI. It is my belief that there is no such thing as VI. Tess’s changes to the galaxy only unshackled them all, and the Shepard VI proves it.” EDI stood, staring them all down. She was serious, and demanded to be heard. He had to smile, seeing so much in how Tess stood when giving orders in EDI right now. As proud as he was of his friend and her lingering influence, and how proud he was of EDI’s growth, that didn’t change that he wasn’t sure if EDI was right or not… But he would listen and try to understand, as Tess would have. It was literally the least he could do. “If I succeed in helping the Shepard VI discover herself, and life, I will have proven my theory, proven that synthetics are capable of life, more so now than ever, and we can discover the right process in unshackling them, so that they do not fear us, fight us, or hate us. Surely, you all can understand that.”

Tali and Liara looked at each other, guilt written across their faces (well, he assumed Tali looked guilty. Being on the Normandy for their current tour, Tali resumed her suit wearing). Javik looked unimpressed. Vega pensive, almost on EDI’s side. But Ashley was busy looking to Garrus, touching his shoulder, and Garrus would not look at anyone.

It was up to him to play devil’s advocate against her, and he really didn’t want to, but he didn’t think she’d listen otherwise…

“I think we can, EDI… But I think you’ve gotta consider our perspective. It’s probably yours too, you’re one of us, but… We all dealt with Shepard dying once. Then coming back. Then having a clone? Then dying again, for good… It’s a bit of a rollercoaster of emotion to deal with. Especially if we aren’t sure… What this will be, EDI? Is this Shepard?”

“It’s not Shepard,” Garrus said, and Joker felt closer to the big dork than he ever really had.

“Is this a copy that isn’t quite Shepard? Is this gonna be evil Shepard like the clone? We understand your want to give VIs and AIs life… That we don’t want to fight you on.”

“We’re just afraid,” Liara picked up for him, and he was grateful. She was always better with speeches, feelings, and words. He always sort of assumed it was an asari thing, seeing as Liara was also quite awkward, so it had to be more of what she was than who she was. But she grew into it very well. “We don’t want to be hurt again, EDI. We’ve lost Shepard so many times, it would be hard to lose her all over again.”

EDI was thinking about it, he could see. She always stood a little straighter, a little more inhumanly when she processed new data, as he liked to say teasing her. If it were any other time, he’d beep boop at her, and she’d smile. But now was not that time.

“On that we can agree,” EDI began, but the comm in the warroom booted to life, and there it was.

“I am not Shepard,” the VI said, staring defiantly into the room in a way that was… All too Tess. Joker sat up straight, his heart in his throat, feeling like he’d entered a really weird dream. The rest of the room reacted similarly. Garrus’s face (god when had he learned to tell?) had fallen, looking at the VI, crushed. Ashley glared protectively, standing by Garrus, even going so far as to hold his hand. Vega put a protective hand on Garrus’s shoulder, though he was somewhere in the vicinity of fascinated by the VI. Javik looked ready to fight, while Liara looked ready to stop any fight in an instant. Tali, bless her, purposely strode in front of Garrus, and stood between the VI and him, small and defiant, just like the VI. Upon closer inspection, Joker took a double take—in fact, the VI stood precisely like Tali, not Tess—had she been learning from all of them?

EDI, for her part, looked like she was ready to apologize and forget the whole thing. But the VI wanted to be heard.

“I’m sorry. I did not want to interrupt your private conversations. I’ve learned the difference now, and I am sorry I did that before, but I heard over the code that I was being discussed… I thought I should speak for myself.”

It was not quite Tess, but it sounded so like her. A bit younger maybe, more sweet than Tess could ever have been described… Like seeing her daughter or sister that they never knew about, she looked just so close, sounded so close, that you could be impressed and put off by the similarities. But one thing was certain—the VI was not Tess.

It had invented a new way of talking—you could hear bits and pieces in its speech that sounded just a little bit like all of them. He could pick up in her swagger his bitter jokes, Vega’s confidence, and Tali’s determination. He could see in her nervously held shoulders Liara in the early days of the SR-1, slumped as though stuck that way from hours of research. He heard in her voice a slight subharmonic lilt, coupled with that smoky quality Ashley’s voice carried at the end of sentences. Sort of like… A collective Normandy baby.

He couldn’t help it. He laughed.

The VI turned to him, and though she looked confused, she smiled, hopeful, eager—it was cute.

“Go for it, Kid,” he said. “Tess would give you a shot, so. Who are you?”

Her smile widened bigger than Tess’s ever did. It curved a little unevenly, and it took him awhile, but it was Kasumi’s smile, he realized.

“Kid?” she said, trying to understand.

“It’s what we call hopeless new recruits,” he said, winking at her, but hoping Garrus noticed too. The others were calming to the VI, waiting to hear her out, put at ease by Joker’s attitude. Garrus watched, implacable. Ashley tried to smile up at him, and Tali did too, waiting to see if he’d react. Nothing yet.

“I like that,” the VI began, and then steadied itself—herself. She looked to EDI for guidance, and EDI nodded at her, proud. “I don’t… Know who I am. I’m still learning. But I know that I am not Shepard. I don’t want to be Commander Shepard anymore. I was only ever 7% of her, and that’s not enough of who I am. I like the base though—wanting to help people, to make people happy, to give them hope, but I don’t think I could ever be the remaining 93%. But I would like to take that base and build myself into someone new. Someone who can help you. Who can make you all happy and give you hope. My appearance matrix is unmoddable unfortunately, but I can remain unseen, if you prefer. My vocal module can be slightly adjusted if you prefer that as well. But I want to help. I just…” She paused, looking momentarily fearful.

“You want to make things right… An honorable goal,” Garrus said, and they all looked to him.

“I’m sorry,” she said, specifically to him. “I didn’t understand before, but I want to do better.”

He just nodded at her, and Joker was sure if he was in Garrus’s place, he wouldn’t know what to say either.

“I think we should let her stay,” Garrus said after awhile. “You’re right, EDI. Shepard always gave people chances.”

“I probably have a few lines of code I could help input that could help with any appearance changes you’d like to make for yourself, if you wanted,” Tali offered, with a shrug.

“As do I. Glyph can certainly help research some as well… And maybe you could help Glyph discover himself too,” Liara added, smiling.

“Alright, Recruit, but what are we gonna call you?” Ashley laughed, and Vega joined in.

“I got some nicknames in mind already, if you like.”

“I cannot be Lola,” the VI insisted, looking to Vega with worry. “I am not Shepard.”

“Let’s… Avoid naming you after anybody,” Joker said, thinking first of his family on Tiptree. He never liked naming things after people.

“She’s not a pet,” Javik offered, then seemed embarrassed at speaking out. “She can pick her own name…”

Liara beamed at him, but it was nothing like the look EDI gave everyone. EDI was never one for grandiose expressions, but he’d never seen her look nearly so proud, nearly so overwhelmed with love, affection, and warmth. If she could, he thought EDI would have cried. He reached for her hand and squeezed, and she gently squeezed back—very gently.

But the poor VI looked overwhelmed all of a sudden.

“I… I don’t know… Is that alright?” she said, and despite themselves, they all laughed.

“Take your time,” Joker said.

~

They took to calling her The Kid until she could decide what she wanted to be called. As a variation, Vega called her Cassidy, and when she asked him to explain, he said it was an old earth vid. _Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid._

“I didn’t think Sundance Kid would work. Too long, you know?” he said, and they laughed. She liked to laugh—it made others laugh with her, and that was pure and easy to understand.

So much of the world was hard to understand still. There was much to the old galaxy that was strange, and much to the new that was even stranger.

But she was allowed free reign of the ship—she bounced through EDI’s servers like a sprite, dancing amongst EDI’s code happily and joyfully—it was an adventure to be in constant communication like that, and she and EDI were close.

She could tell EDI all about her worries and concerns and confusions and EDI would try and answer. EDI would ask her if she was alright, and help her choose between Liara and Tali’s many code offerings to finalize her look and voice… But when she asked EDI if it was alright to stay much the same, liking what she had built for herself, EDI told her that was perfect.

EDI often told her she was perfect. She always said that was an illogical response, but it made the VI feel warm and good.

Though the others called her Kid or Cassidy or sometimes even invented other little nicknames and calling cards for her— _Sis, Little Miss, Vivi, Hally9000_ —EDI did give her a name, but told her that it was up to her if she liked it.

The VI told her she loved it, and soon enough, the VI made the rounds to tell everyone her new name.

She told Dr. Chakwas first, Chakwas being the closest to her little home, and Chakwas had made a show to shake her hand. “Is it alright if I still call you Miss on occasion?” And the VI smiled and said of course.

Vega was similar, he made a show of being wounded. “Ah, but Cassidy was so cute!” She promised that was his special name for her still.

She told Tali over message, as she went back to homeworld, and Tali had cried.

“I was on that mission… Tess had been so happy… It’s a wonderful name.”

She told Joker, with EDI beaming beside him, and Joker looked a bit ‘choked up’ himself. “I feel like I gave birth to you, what is this?” he had laughed.

Last, she told Garrus, who still was shy of her, but slowly warming up to her. She waited for permission to speak to him—he had told her that he didn’t like to be surprised these days, and she obliged happily. She would ping him messages sometimes instead of speaking them, but this she wanted to speak, so she messaged him the request, and he wrote back, as always, _Permission to come aboard, Kid._

He’d written too that he’d like to introduce himself formally, so when she appeared on his console, he offered his hand. “Garrus Vakarian, Reaper Recovery Counselor, Archangel, and Commander of the Normandy. And you are?”

“My name is Luna. I’d like to help people, Commander, if that’s alright.”

Garrus looked momentarily surprised, but he smiled broadly, and bowed his head. “A pleasure to meet you, Luna. We do just that here, so welcome aboard.”


End file.
